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On June 6th 1935, tempers flared at the camp council meeting in the tent city of Palmer, and one gets the impression that reporter Arville Schaleben would have been eating

In the first week of June, 1935, the early rumblings of dissent and division among the Matanuska colonists took the form of complaining about each other’s dogs at council meetings. 

The night of June 4th, 1935, saw the first meeting of the Matanuska Colony council.  “Alaska Colony Organizes; Big Problem is Garbage,” reported Arville Schaleben, the Milwaukee Journal reporter embedded

On Sunday, June 2nd, as families settled into their tent camps and began clearing land, some took the time to write to folks back home. Margaret Miller wrote We went

On June 1st, 1935, the Alaska Railroad began daily passenger service between Anchorage and Palmer.  To the existing weekly regular train up the Chickaloon branch line, the new schedule added

At the end of May, 1935, the complaints began.   As Kirk Stone succinctly put it, “The Matanuska Colony was an experiment worked out in an emergency.”  The project was a

Thursday, May 30th, 1935, was Memorial Day (it would not be moved to the last Monday in May for another 33 years).  In Palmer, the holiday was observed in the

On May 29th, 1935, the last eight of the original families selected for the Matanuska Colony finally reached Palmer, along with their fellow passengers from the North Star – the

May 28th , 1935, was a fine spring day in Palmer with no rain, and everyone made the most of it.  Work continued on the camps – erecting tents, drilling wells,

On May 13th, 1935, families from Wisconsin and Michigan left their old homes for the last time.  They would be catching trains late that night and early the next morning

On May 25th , 1935, several Army Medical Corps personnel of the St. Mihiel visited Palmer, to see where their passengers of the last two trips were bound.  Capt. Roland

On Friday, May 24th, 1935, most of the Michigan and Wisconsin colonists arrived in Palmer.  While their men had gone on ahead to participate in the land drawing on the

On the morning of May 23rd, 1935, the Matanuska colonists drew slips of paper to find out where their homes would be.   Don Irwin reported that survey crews had

On May 22nd, 1935, the St Mihiel arrived in Seward at 8 AM.  All the Michigan and Wisconsin farm families were only too happy to get off the ship and

On May 21st, 1935, the Michigan and Wisconsin farmers bound for Palmer were one day out from Seward, and very eager to reach land.  The second voyage of the St.

On, May 20th, 1935, while the St Mihiel sloshed woozily northward full of seasick Midwesterners, the Anchorage Times reported two news items out of Palmer.   The first was that the

Ninety years ago, on May 18th, 1935, the Matanuska-bound families from Wisconsin and Michigan set sail from Seattle aboard the St Mihiel. Bailey Ferber, Nona, Ruth, and Gene Bailey aboard

May 17th 1935 Ninety years ago today, May 17th, 1935, the Michigan and Wisconsin contingents of the Matanuska Colony Project were in Seattle.  Tomorrow they would sail for Alaska. Cover

May 16 Ninety years ago today, May 16th, 1935, while rain fell on the tent city in Palmer, the Michigan and Wisconsin contingents of the Matanuska Colony arrived in Seattle. 

Ninety years ago today, May 15th, 1935, was graduation day for students at Palmer and Matanuska.    Spring had sprung: the ice went out on the Nenana River, colonists from

Ninety years ago tonight, May 13th, 1935, families from Wisconsin and Michigan had left their old homes for the last time. They would be catching trains late that night and

May 12th, 1935, was Mother’s Day, and the first Sunday since the Minnesota colonists’ arrival in Palmer. Reverend Bert Bingle, recently of Cordova, currently living in a tent in Jim

Ninety years ago today, on May 11th, 1935, the Minnesota colonists woke up in Palmer for the first time, bright morning sunlight coming through their white canvas tents. Ray Rebarchek

Ninety years ago today, May 10th, 1935 was a banner day for the Matanuska Colony Project. After a journey of nearly five thousand miles from Minnesota, the first colonists arrived

Ninety years ago, between May 6th and 10th of 1935, the quiet fields along the Palmer railroad siding suddenly swarmed with activity as the Matanuska Colony Project began the first

Ninety years ago today, May 6th, 1935: the St Mihiel docked at Seward, carrying the Minnesota colonists bound for Palmer, as well as 300 transient workers from California.“It was dusk

Ninety years ago today, May 4th, 1935: while the North Star and St Mihiel were a couple days out from Seward with the first boatloads of colonists and workers, survey

Ninety years ago today, on May 3rd, 1935, the ship North Star was coming up the Inside Passage with workers and building materials bound for Palmer. The ship had spent

Ninety years ago today, May 2nd 1935: the Matanuska colonists were en route to Alaska on the St Mihiel; the project administrators and transient workers aboard the North Star were

Ninety years ago today, on May 1st, 1935, the army transport ship St Mihiel steamed out of San Francisco carrying 67 Minnesota farm families and 300 transient workers bound for

Ninety years ago today, the Minnesotan contingent of the Matanuska Colony Project were two days into their journey west and north, rattling towards San Francisco on the “Alaska Special.”Ray Rebarchek

Ninety years ago, on April 23, 1935, the ship North Star left San Francisco loaded with workers and supplies bound for Palmer, to build a tent city for the 200

Easter fell on April 21st of 1935. For many of the Minnesota families recently selected for the Matanuska Colony Project, ninety years ago today was a time of celebration and